Ancient people in China systematically mined and burned coal up to 3600 years ago
Long before coal fueled the Industrial Revolution, ancient societies around the world were already exploiting its power to smelt metal or heat water for toasty baths.
Now, excavations at a Bronze Age site in northwestern China show people were burning coal on a large scale up to 3600 years ago, 1 millennium earlier than previously thought. The research,
reported today in
Science Advances
, also traces where the coal came from and how a shortage of other fuel may have encouraged ancient people to turn to this new energy source.
In the past, knowledge of ancient coal usage was “based on who a...
Source: ScienceNOW - July 26, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
This fish delivers a nasty sting. Could it also save lives?
Ocean-goers along the Pacific Northwest’s rugged shorelines know to give the prickly Korean rockfish a wide berth. A type of scorpionfish, it can deliver a toxic strike with its spines. But according to a new study, the fish may possess the ability to heal as well as harm. A protein it produces can kill drug-resistant bacteria, the authors say, and could one day be used to treat infections in people with cystic fibrosis.
The discovery “sets the stage” for scientists to develop better tools to combat antibiotic resistance, says Nicole Iovine, an infectious disease expert at the University of Florida who was not ...
Source: ScienceNOW - July 24, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
Where do deep-sea creatures live? Where they won ’t dissolve
Vast muddy seabeds cover more than 60% of the planet, collectively making them Earth’s largest habitat. At first glance, these frigid, sunless depths all seem more or less the same. Yet the animals that live there, kilometers below the surface, prefer some regions over others, according to a new study. What accounts for their preferences? It’s nothing they can see or sense, the authors say, but an invisible and life-threatening limit imposed by seawater chemistry.
This limit demarcates where an important component of many kinds of marine life, calcium carbonate, naturally dissolves. Researchers have long known th...
Source: ScienceNOW - July 24, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
Legal challenges multiply to law reshaping Mexico ’s science funding system
Mexico’s controversial new science law, which seeks to reshape government research funding and governance, is facing a flurry of legal challenges.
The nation’s Supreme Court last week agreed to hear a lawsuit brought by federal lawmakers who opposed the measure and allege its enactment violates Mexico’s constitution. The move came just days after a lower court ordered the government to temporarily stop implementing the law while it hears one of dozens of challenges brought by researchers.
Government officials say they have yet to receive the order, issued by a district court judge in the northern state of...
Source: ScienceNOW - July 21, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
Curry may have landed in Southeast Asia 2000 years ago
Even after 2000 years, the stone slab still smelled of nutmeg. Unearthed in an ancient village in southern Vietnam, the cookware—roughly the size and shape of an anvil—was likely used to grind the spice, along with other ingredients familiar in today’s curries. The discovery, reported today in
Science Advances
, marks
the earliest known example of spice processing in mainland Southeast Asia
. It also suggests that visitors from India and Indonesia may have introduced their culinary traditions to the region millennia ago.
“For decades, we have known of the strong Indian influence on Southea...
Source: ScienceNOW - July 21, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
